Lawsuit filed against online gun site in spa shooting (UPDATE)

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MILWAUKEE (AP) — A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed against a company that helped obtain a gun for a man who killed three women, including his estranged wife, and wounded four others at a suburban Milwaukee salon before killing himself.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the estate of gunman Radcliffe Haughtonk’s estranged wife, Zina Haughton, and her daughter from a previous relationship, Yasmeen Daniel. It comes three years after the attack at the Azana Salon & Spa in Brookfield.

The lawsuit, filed in Milwaukee County Circuit Court Wednesday, contends that Radcliffe Haughton was able to buy a gun from a private party by using Armslist, a gun sales website, despite having a restraining order against him for abusing his wife that barred him from owning a firearm, according to the Journal Sentinel (http://bit.ly/1GssXgi ). No background check or waiting period was required because Haughton found a private, local seller through Armslist. The company’s founders, Brian Mancini and Jonathan Gibbon, were also named as defendants.

The lawsuit was filed by the same attorney, Patrick Dunphy, who recently represented two wounded Milwaukee police officers who won their case against Badger Guns, a West Milwaukee gun dealer. Jurors in Milwaukee County last week found Badger Guns broke the law when a clerk sold a gun that was used to shoot Officers Bryan Norberg and Graham Kunisch in 2009. Badger Guns is appealing the verdict.

A similar lawsuit against Armslist was filed in federal court in Illinois by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, but it was dismissed last year. The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that dismissal, noting that the shooter accepted the company’s standard of terms which says Armslist does not become involved in any transaction and puts responsibility to follow the law on the buyer.